Luck

Nothing goes by luck in composition.  It allows no tricks.  

The best you can write will be the best you are.

~ Henry David Thoreau

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There are all those quotes about good luck happening when you are prepared.  I think that is true most of the time.  The more you are ready for something, the more likely you are to find opportunities to make things happen.

And the opposite is also true.  I can honestly say that the tests for which I did not prepare in high school and college were some of the most unlucky tests I ever took.